THE HOUR OF THE STAR

by Clarice Lispector ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 1986

From the late Brazilian novelist/short-story writer Lispector, the short, unhappy life of a Rio slum girl whose existence is ""duller than plain bread and butter."" Lyrical, funny, finally quite sad. The mysterious narrator, possibly Lispector's alter ego, is Rodrigo S.M., a man of apparent wealth and leisure, who is telling the story--in a roundabout way, with many pauses and sighing asides--of Macabea, an ugly, sickly girl from a poverty-stricken northeastern province who makes her way to Rio de Janeiro, finds marginal work as a typist with a company that distributes pulley equipment, and shares a squalid room in the red-light district with four other girls. She barely knows she exists: ""I am a typist and a virgin, and I like Coca-Cola,"" she tells herself firmly, but soon she's adrift without an anchor of identity in a world that is utterly beyond her comprehension. She meets a shallow young man named Olympico de Jesus, but drives him crazy with her non sequiturs (""I love nuts and bolts. How about you?""), and he finally leaves her for Gloria, a femme fatale who works in her office. Trying to do something positive, Macabea goes to a callous quack of a doctor for a physical--the man tells her she's in the early stages of pulmonary tuberculosis, and prescribes ""Italian spaghetti"" to counter her weight loss before kicking her out of his office. Searching for one last glimmer of hope, Macabea borrows money and goes to see an ex-prostitute fortune-teller named Madame Carlota, who assures her: ""Your life is about to change completely. . . You are about to come in for a great fortune that a foreign gentleman will bring to you in the night."" Leaving the old charlatan's house, Macabea is struck down and killed by a yellow Mercedes. This is Lispector's last novel (first published in Brazil in the year of her death, 1977) and, all in all, a painful but lovely testimony to her superb talents.

Pub Date: April 10, 1986

ISBN: 0811211908

Page Count: -

Publisher: Carcanet--dist. by Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION